Colton Runyan

Regular Members
  • Content Count

    7
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    1

Colton Runyan last won the day on June 12 2022

Colton Runyan had the most liked content!

Community Reputation

44 Excellent

About Colton Runyan

  • Rank
    Jonokuchi

Recent Profile Visitors

The recent visitors block is disabled and is not being shown to other users.

  1. Colton Runyan

    Sumoroku: the sumo-themed sugoroku

    Dear Sumo Friends, I am proud to announce the release of the sumo-themed sugoroku game: Sumoroku! The perfect game for sumo enthusiasts and history buffs! You can find the game here: https://www.utjapanlab.com/sumoroku While the original board is a pre-made composite of 19th century depictions of sumo wrestling, a team of undergraduates at the University of Texas and I worked to create this video game. It expands on the original idea by including historical info and a gripping narrative written by students who are fascinated by sumo history. We also incorporated three amazing minigames including sumo matches, teppo training, and making chanko. This game is truly unlike any other! For those that wish to play, all you need to do is follow the link and press on the first image. For those that want the historical information without playing the game, just scroll down the page where we have itemized every picture with historical background and a connected narrative arc throughout. If you want the game in full screen, please use this link: https://simmer.io/@Kanonbell/sumoroku Comments and questions are encouraged. I will answer the questions and forward the comments to the team that helped me build this game.
  2. Colton Runyan

    academic and informed sources on the history of sumo

    The vast majority are easy to find. I purchased all these books, save for Sakai Tadamasa's godsend of a book (which set me back 50,000 yen), from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.jp, or kosho.or.jp. Dykstra's translation of the Konjaku is quite expensive, but you should be able to get the rest of them for "reasonable" prices.
  3. Colton Runyan

    academic and informed sources on the history of sumo

    Please do. I'd love to take a look at it.
  4. This thread is for sharing academic and informed sources (namely books and chapters within books) on sumo in the fields of history, literature, historical anthropology, and sociology. The sources are partitioned based on three criteria: 1. whether they are academic (professors, members of the sumo museum, etc.) vs. informed (any other author or clearly written for a general audience). 2. has multiple chapters on sumo (long source) vs. one chapter/article/short stories within an anthology (short source). 3. in English vs. in Japanese. The sources will be written in alphabetical order by author within each category. Sources I think are exceptionally useful will have an asterisk preceding the entry, but all have merit. Don't be surprised if there are only a few entries per category as it is a small field, but I will continue to add to this thread as I find more sources. Most modern pop culture books and all newspaper articles and databases are not included. I do not disparage these sources, but this is the not the thread for them. Please post in this thread if you have sources to include. Once I can verify them, I'll add them to the list at the top of the thread for quick reference. disclaimer: I acknowledge that this post is merely my opinion on what goes where and what constitutes a proper source, but I do so as a PhD candidate whose dissertation heavily concerns sumo. Essentially, I've created this list because I want to share the major sumo sources in my bibliography so that you may embark on your own journeys into sumo history. Academic: Long Sources (Eng): * Cuyler, P. L. Sumo: From Rite to Sport. New York: Weatherhill, Inc., 1979. * Guttman, Allen and Lee Thompson. Japanese Sports: A History. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2001. Short Sources (Eng): Bolitho, Harold. "Frolicking Dragons: Mythic Terror and the Sumo Tradition." A.S.S.H Studies in Sports History: No 2. Sport: Nationalism and Internationalism 2: 2-12, 1987. Cognan, Thomas J. The Tale of the Soga Brothers. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1987. Dykstra, Yoshiko K. The Konjaku Tales: Japanese section (Honcho-Hen)(II). Kansai Gaidai University: Intercultural Research Institute, 2001. ——. “Notable Tales Old and New: Tachibana Narisue’s Kokon Chomonjῡ.” Monumenta Nipponica 47:4 (Winter, 1992), pp. 469-493. Mills, D.E. A Collection of Tales from Uji: A study and Translation of Uji Shῡi Monogatari. Cambridge: At the University Press, 1979. Thompson, Lee. “The Invention of the Yokozuna and the Championship System, or, Futahaguro’s Revenge” in Stephen Vlastos, ed. Mirror of Modernity: Invented Traditions of Modern Japan. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998, 174-190. —— and Nitta Ichirō. "Sumo Wrestling in the Tokugawa Period" in Gary P. Leupp ed. The Tokugawa World. New York: Routledge, 2021. Long Sources (Jp): Ikeda Masao. Dohyō ima mukashi. Tokyo: Jinbutsu ōraisha, 1967. ——. Sumō no rekishi. Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1977. ——. Ōsumō shi nyūmon. Tokyo: Kadokawa, 2020. Nitta Ichirō. Sumō no rekishi. Tokyo: Yamakawa shuppansha, 1994. ——. Sumō: sono rekishi to gihō. Tokyo: beisubōru magajin sha, 2016. Obinata Katsumi. Kodai kokka to nenjῡ gyōji. Tokyo: Yoshikawa kōbunkan, 1993. *** Sakai Tadamasa. Nihon sumō shi. Tokyo: beisubōru magajin, 1956-1964. Tsuchiya Yoshitaka. sumō. Tokyo: Hōsei daigaku shuppankyoku, 2017. Wakamori Tarō. Sumō ima mukashi. Tokyo: Kawade shobō shinsa, 1963. Short Sources (Jp): Informed: Long Sources (Eng): Sharnoff, Lora. Grand Sumo: The Living Sport and Tradition. New York: Weatherhill, Inc., 1989. Short Sources (Eng): Hikoyama, Kōzō. Sumo: Japanese Wrestling. Tokyo: Board of Tourist Industry, Japanese Government Railways, 1940. Long Sources (Jp): Nitta Ichirō. sumō no himitsu. Tokyo: asahi shuppansha, 2010. Short Sources (Jp): Masukawa Kōichi. Awasemono. Tokyo: Hōsei daigaku shuppankyoku, 2000.
  5. Colton Runyan

    Colton Runyan Wins Japan National University Tournament

    For what it is worth, I don't consider those perfunctory nods disrespectful. I do bow lower, but it is a personal choice for personal reasons. What I do not abide by are the pre-match hand shenanigans that some wrestlers indulge in.
  6. Colton Runyan

    The early days of Haridashi sanyaku

    Thank you for the warm, Texas-style welcome, Joann. Makes me miss home. I don't know how active I will be while writing my dissertation, but I consider it a pleasure, and borderline moral duty, to offer whatever information I have for fellow enthusiasts. It's very encouraging to see an active community engaged in so many facets of sumo.
  7. Colton Runyan

    The early days of Haridashi sanyaku

    Gurowake, I am not sure what your conclusion is to the information you have disseminated, but I will offer some references for further exploration of the topic. Forgive me for not having the full source information for some of these as my modern sumo library is ironically back in the states while I sit in Kyoto. The first place to look for any sumo-related answer pre-1950's is always Sakai Tadamasa. Nihon sumō shi. (Tokyo: baseball magazine, 1956-1964). For this case, you would need to look at volume two (and be able to read Japanese). Next, the academic who has done by far the most research on sumo in English since its resurgence during the Tokugawa period is Lee Thompson. Three of his works come to mind: His book with Allen Guttman: Allen Guttman and Lee Thompson. Japanese Sports: A History. (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2001). pages 108-115, 139-145 do discuss some of the things you are describing. His article in Stephen Vlastos ed. Mirror of Modernity: Invented Traditions of Japan (University of California Press, 1998). The article is about the championship system and the myriad changes sumo went through in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (last read it a few years ago. The bit on Futahaguro is pretty great) His article in Gary P. Leupp ed. The Tokugawa World. (New York: Routledge, 2021). The focus of this article is earlier than your period of interest, but it can help to bridge the gap. Another author who I have multiple untouched copies of his books on my shelf (in America) is Nitta Ichiro, who is a professor of economics at Tokyo University. He has written some books on sumo, and my general impression of the bits I have read is that they are geared more for a general audience. He is quite influential in the collegiate sumo circuit and is regarded as a sumo expert. Happy hunting, my friend.